If you haven't yet read our general help article on the gear you need to play and/or sing on JamKazam, we recommend you read that article now and then come back to this one. 


If you want to set up and use your electronic drum kit with JamKazam as a MIDI instrument, then we recommend you click here to read the help article on using MIDI instruments with JamKazam, as this help article will be more helpful to you.


If you play an electronic drum kit, and you prefer to use the audio outputs from your drum kit as the audio source for your JamKazam sessions, then you're in the right place for a little deeper dive into the audio gear you need and how to set it upThere are a couple of different options for how to set up your drum kit for JamKazam, and we'll describe both of these setup options below.



1: Connect Drum Kit to Audio Interface


If you're not planning to sing in sessions, then your best option may be to simply connect the audio output ports of your drum kit to the audio input ports on the audio interface for your Windows computer or for your Mac computer using a pair of standard 1/4" audio cables. Below is an image of the two ends of this cable type, just in case you're not sure.



Connect the left audio output port of your drum kit to the left audio input port of your audio interface, and the right audio output port of your drum kit to the right audio input port of your audio interface, as shown in the diagram belowThen plug a pair of headphones into the headphone port on your audio interface. 


In this configuration, you will need to set up and use the built-in microphone on your computer as a chat mic in order to talk with other musicians in your session. This may be a bit of a challenge, as you'll need to set up your laptop close enough that you can both be heard through the built-in microphone on the computer.



2: Connect Drum Kit and Microphone to Audio Interface


If you want to sing in JamKazam sessions in addition to playing your drum kit, or if you want to be able to talk in sessions with other musicians with higher-quality and more easily accessible audio than you'll get from the built-in mic on your computer, then you may prefer the setup below. 


In this configuration (pictured in the diagram below), you connect either the left or right audio output from your drum kit into a single audio input port on your audio interface. If you set it up this way, the JamKazam application will automatically duplicate the mono audio signal into a stereo signal, so you and others in your session will still hear stereo audio from your drum kit. 


If you also want to sing in sessions, you'll want to make sure you have a microphone, a microphone stand, and an XLR cable to connect your microphone to your audio interface (as pictured in the diagram above). If you're not going to sing, you may still want to get this gear, as you'll be doing a lot of talking in sessions, and this gives you high-quality vocal audio, which you'll find you really enjoy. Having a mic right up in front of your face also makes it easier and more convenient to chat in sessions vs. using the built-in mic on your computer. But if you're only going to talk with others in sessions, then you don't have to get this microphone gear, and you can just use the built-in microphone in your Windows or Mac computer to talk in sessions. 



For Multi-Instrumentalists


For musicians who play lots of instruments, if you prefer not to have to constantly be plugging and unplugging different instruments and resetting your audio input level as you swap from one instrument to another, we recommend that you read our help article for multi-instrumentalists. This help article provides configuration advice just for you.